Gall Midges (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae) of Italy

Entomologica, Bari, 28, (1994): 45-76 MARCELA SKUHRAVA AND VACLAV SKUHRAVY Institute of Entomology, Academy of Sciences, Cz-37005 Ceské Budejovice, Branisovská 31, Czech Republic Gall midges (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae) of Italy ABSTRACT A list of gall midge species including host plant and host animal species was compiled from more than 200 papers of Italian researchers published in period 1840-1994. Present Italian fauna of gall midges includes 324 species. A history of studies is described. Occurrence and distribution of gall midge species in northern and southern Italy, in Sicily and Sardinia is analysed. Members of gall midge fauna are divided into four frequency groups, viz. solitary, scarcely, abundant and most abundant species. Majority of Italian gall midge species (64%) belong to Euro-Siberian, about 18 % to Mediterranean and about 16 % to endemic (native) species. Key words: Diptera, Cecidomyiidae, faunistics, zoogeography; occurrence, distribution, frequency groups; Euro-Siberian, Mediterranean, endemic species; Italy, Sicily, Sardinia. INTRODUCTION The study of the gall midges, larvae of which cause galls on various host plants or feed on various insects or mites, has a very long tradition in Italy. The beginnings may be found even in the ancient times: Plinius the Older, who lived in the lst century P.Ch., described very briefly in his Naturalis historia the galls on the leaves of Fagus sylvatica, which were much later, in the 19th century, recognized to be products of larval activity of the gall midge Mikiola fagi (Hartig, 1839). The literature on gall midges and their occurrence in Italy is very extensive and the data are scattered in many papers. We evaluated more than 200 papers dealing with gall midges which were published from 1840 to 1994. Our paper is divided into four parts. In the first we provide a review of the history and development of studies of gall-making, predacious and free living gall midges with an evaluation of the importance of the journal “Marcellia” for the advance of cecidological studies. In the second part we bring a list of known gall midge species including their host plant and host animal species. The third part deals with the occurrence and distribution of gall midges in the territory of Italy. In the fourth part we compare the results of researches and studies in Italy with those in other Mediterranean countries. –– 46 –– 1. H I S T O R Y O F S T U D I E S O F G A L L M I D G E S In the 17th century the Italian physician, anatomist and natural historian Marcello Malpighi collected plants with various deformities and was the first to recognize that they are caused by various insects. He described galls of nine species without giving them names; they were named and formally described much later. He is, therefore, considered to be the father of cecidology in Italy (“indiscusso fondatore della cecidologia”). The first descriptions of gall midges were given in Europe in 1758 and 1767 by LINNÉ and in 1781 by SCHRANK. At the beginning of the 19th century the following seven genera of gall midges were known: Cecidomyia, Lasioptera, Oligotrophus, Campylomyza, Catocha, Lasiopteryx and Lestremia. In Italy the first descriptions and diagnoses of gall midges were given in several papers by RONDANI (1840-1860). He described 13 species and establi- shed several genera of gall midges. The Latin name “cecidium” for deformities of plant organs, the galls, was introduced in 1873 by THOMAS and is still used. At the beginning of the 20th century about 90 gall midge species were known in Italy. The advance in gall midge studies started with investigations of galls by BEZZI (1892, 1899, 1908), CORTI (1901, 1902, 1903) and MARIANI (1907, 1908, 1914). The first and second decades of the 20th century can be called “the golden age” of cecidology in Italy. Several excellent scientists, viz. Massalongo, Cecconi, Trotter, Baldrati and later Stefani-Perez, carried out intensive studies on the occurrence of galls caused by various animals in various parts of Italy. Their names remain preserved in the gall midges literature as the names of genera and species of gall midges. For example the genera: Rondaniola, Contarinia, Massalongia, Baldratia, Trotteria, Ste - phaniella; and the species: Asphondylia massalongoi, Lestodiplosis mas - salongoi, Aphi doletes bezzi, Anabremia trotteri, Arnoldiola trotteri, Stephaniella cecconii and others. CORTI (1901-1903) published several papers about galls occurring in northern Italy: in Piemonte, Lombardia and in the valey Valtellina. BEZZI (1892-1908) investigated the occurrence of galls in Trentino and in southern Italy. MASSALONGO (1891-1916) studied very intensively galls of mites (Acarina) and also galls of other gall makers, among them also galls of gall midges. He investigated the occurrence of galls in the territory of Tergnago near Verona. In his paper in 1892 he mentioned 53 galls of gall midges, in 1895 eleven, in 1897 nine and in 1899 six species of gall midges. He found several gall midge galls at Bologna, Ferrara, in the area north of Verona, at Perugia and also in Sardinia. –– 47 –– BALDRATI (1900) in his comprehensive paper reported results of his cecidological studies about the occurrence of galls in various parts of Italy. He found the majority of gall midge galls (47 species) in the surroundings of Lavazzuola near Bologna and galls of several other species at Ravenna (3), at Ferrara (8), at Brescia (9), at Bergamo (9) and at Pisa (4). Stefani-Perez, who lived and worked in Palermo in Sicily, published in the years 1898-1917 21 contributions about the occurrence of galls caused by various gall makers in Sicily and described there 10 new gall midge species. STEFANI-PEREZ (1909) also published data about the collection of galls found by Prof. Delpino in northern Italy where he noted the occurrence of galls of 14 species of gall midges. TROTTER, the main representative of the group of excellent cecidologists of that time, published his papers in the years 1897-1923. At the beginning of his career he worked at the station of plant pathology at Roma, where he started his cecidological studies and collected galls at Mantova in northern Italy. Later he worked and investigated the occurrence of galls at Avellino in southern Italy. He collected galls practically throughout Italy but his richest collections of gall midge galls are from Higlands Gargano (Puglia) and from Sicily. During the period of 1900-1917 he published in cooperation with Prof. CECCONI the large publication Cecidotheca Italiana. This paper includes the descriptions of 570 galls of various gall makers 170 of which are gall midge species (120 valid species and the rest are undescribed species). In the period of 1897-1904 CECCONI published seven papers about galls occurring in the surroundings of Vallombrosa. He identified galls of 72 gall midge species in that area and later he found six species in Sardinia. He collected galls in the environs of Roma and Napoli and in Toscana where he gathered galls of 23 gall midge species. DEL GUERCIO at the beginning of his career studied the economic importance of gall midges developing on Olea and the occurrence of galls in Eritrea in Africa. In the years 1918-1919, during a short period of only 18 months, he published descriptions of 19 gall midge species feeding on aphids, coccids and thrips, sometimes based on the larval stages only. He did not designate the type-locality for any of these species. He gave only “southern Italy” and even “Italy”. Because he worked at Firenze, it is possible to assume that these type-localities are situated also in southern Italy. See Fig.1. The second period of the study of gall midges started after the year 1920 and continues up to the present. This period is characterized mainly by investigations about the economic importance of gall midges and later by the detailed studies of morphology, biology, ecology and ethology of various gall midge species. –– 48 –– Fig. 1. The territory of Italy with areas where at the beginning of the 20th century intensive cecidological investigations were carried out by several excellent Italian scientists. –– 49 –– RICCHELO (1930) reported about the occurrence and harmfulness of Mayetiola avenae, CECCONI (1933-1935) about Haplodiplosis marginata, DELLA BEFFA (1938) about Apiomyia bergenstammi, GOIDANICH (1936, 1942) about Contarinia pyrivora and Resseliella oleisuga, MELIS (1938) about Dasineura pyri, VENTURI (1936, 1938, 1939-40) about Contarinia tritici and Sitodiplosis mosellana, RASIS (1953) about the occurrence of Hybolasioptera cerealis damaging cereals. ROBERTI (1946, 1955) paid attention to the problems of predacious gall midges, Aphidoletes aphidimyza and Therodiplosis persicae, and tried to solve the species complex of the genus Mayetiola (ROBERTI, 1953, 1957). FREDIANI (1952, 1955) contributed to the development of gall midge knowledge by his study of morphology and biology of Dryomyia lichtenstei- ni, PRINCIPI (1958) by study of morphology and ethology of Putoniella pruni, MARTINO (1956) by study of Asphondylia gennadii and TULLIO (1968) by study of the ethology of Planetella (Diplolaboncus) tumorificus. The cecidological studies of M. SOLINAS and his contribution to the development of knowledge of the gall midge studies in Italy and to the progress of cecidological science are very important. He started his publication activities in 1965 and he is publishing, with the exception of the interval 1971-1981 when he worked at UNESCO, up to the present. He published two mono- graphs, about Jaapiella medicaginis and about Contarinia medicaginis (SOLINAS 1965), described five new species and four new genera of gall midges, studied in detail the morphology, anatomy and biology of several gall midges and, based on substantial study of morphological characters and bio- logical observations, synonymized several gall midge species described in the past which cause galls on species of the genus Euphorbia and concluded that only three real species exist (SOLINAS, PECORA, 1984).

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